Inde Navarrette will officially campaign in the Best Actress category at the Oscars for her breakout performance in the horror sensation ‘Obsession.’
Focus Features is mounting a significant awards season push for the film, which has become the distributor’s highest-grossing release of all time. The low-budget horror-romance, made for just $750,000, has earned over $505.6 million worldwide and continues to break box office records.
The studio plans an aggressive campaign across nearly every category the film is eligible for. Alongside Navarrette’s Best Actress push, Focus Features will campaign writer-director Curry Barker as a rare triple threat in Best Director, Original Screenplay, and Film Editing, a combination that helped propel Sean Baker’s Anora to Best Picture. The full campaign includes:
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Best Picture
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Best Actress — Inde Navarrette
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Best Actor — Michael Johnston
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Best Director — Curry Barker
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Original Screenplay — Curry Barker
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Best Supporting Actor — Cooper Tomlinson, Andy Richter
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Best Supporting Actress — Megan Lawless
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Film Editing — Curry Barker
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Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Casting, Makeup & Hairstyling, Production Design
Obsession follows Bear (Michael Johnston), who makes a wish on a One Wish Willow to make his longtime friend Nikki (Navarrette) love him, with sinister and gory consequences. The film has drawn comparisons to Jordan Peele’s Get Out for its ability to break through genre barriers and compete in the prestige awards race. Like Get Out, a horror movie that earned four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Obsession is attempting to follow a similar path from genre breakout to awards contender.
For Navarrette, the campaign caps a meteoric rise. The 25-year-old actress was relatively unknown before Obsession but has since been cast as Rogue in the upcoming Marvel X-Men reboot. “That’s everybody’s dream,” Navarrette told Gold Derby about the Oscar buzz. “What makes me feel so proud is that I really, really love Nikki and I love that other people love Nikki.”
The 99th Academy Awards will take place on March 14, 2027.
